Page 163 of Filthy Rich Vampires: For Eternity

“My Queen.” His words seared through me, intimate even despite this public display of loyalty.

I reached for him and his hand grasped mine, his touch pulsing through our gloves. He lifted it to his forehead and pressed it there once before bringing it to his chest and then up to his kiss. My breath hitched, my gown no longer the only part of me on fire.

I barely processed the figures moving behind him until they, too, kneeled, heads bowed. Julian’s brothers. His father. And soon others followed. Not all. But many.

So much for incognito.

I held my head high, drank in the power flowing through me, allowed myself to feel it—to become it. Across the courtyard, Sabine’s gaze met mine. Her head tilted slightly, the closest to a show of fealty she was going to give me. I inclined my head back.

Because Queens shared power, and regardless of my rather strained relationship with my future mother-in-law, I knew it was the only way forward. Not to hide from our magic—to share it.

I dropped my attention to Julian, whose sinful grin radiated pride, and spoke in a clear, loud voice, “Your place is by my side, mate.”

I rather like being on my knees for you.

Heat rushed through me, and it had nothing to do with my dress. Later, I would allow him to show me just how much he liked it.

Julian rose, his family following a beat later. Our fingers twined together automatically as if they knew that’s where they belonged.

“Goddess,” he growled under his breath, and my toes curled.

We moved in step through the party, nodding hellos but not stopping to speak to anyone else. Not while our magic roared through us, the mating urge growing increasingly irresistible. My eyes lifted to find Julian watching me.

I’m not sure how long I can keep my hands off of you. The words brushed through me, a gentle request laced with need. His mask hid it, but I felt it. Maybe since my body demanded the same.

Don’t.

His teeth sank into his lower lip, a fang flashing. Careful, my love, or I will show everyone here who I belong to.

Don’t you mean who I belong to?

His hand tightened around mine as he picked up the pace, no longer playing the part of the king surveying his subjects. He was on a mission. My pulse raced as we surged through the crowd, out of the courtyard, into the halls of the court.

The spectacle continued inside, but the atmosphere shifted. The courtyard was only a show, a nod to propriety and politics with a hint of sensual deviance. This was the Midnight Carnival.

Black silk draped from the cavernous ceilings twined with enormous vines, giant leaves fanning from them. Once a palace. Now a sensual paradise. The hallway was empty but music pulsed in the distant, its beat nearly matching the throb at my core. The sound beckoned us forward past candelabras spilling wax on the marble floor, urged us toward that hypnotic rhythm.

Julian paused. “I think that’s the blood orgy Sebastian mentioned.”

His body angled, turning in the opposite direction, away from the carnival toward our quarters.

“Julian, The Rite.” I stayed in place.

“We don’t have to prove anything.” He drew me closer, unfazed by the flames that reached toward him. If he felt them, he said nothing.

I freed the desire inside me, let it shine from my eyes. “Who said anything about proving something? You are mine to do with as I please.”

A smirk cocked his tempting lips. “And what would please you, My Queen?”

“I came to take The Rite. I should see everything.”

Julian stilled. He was the picture of an avenging God, crafted from onyx under his dark mask. “You want to take part in the blood orgy?”

Each word was strained, said with such care, and I knew that if I said yes, he would find some way to grant that desire, even with his mating instinct currently in overdrive.

“I want to see,” I clarified, brushing the back of my hand over his scaled mask. “Only you can touch me... taste me.”

The abyss of his eyes deepened, even as he shook his head. “Not... not while you’re...”

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